Building urban climate resilience: the economics of alternative development pathways case study of Da Nang, Vietnam
The purpose of this research is to undertake a forward-looking analysis to explore the costs and benefits of systematic efforts to build resilience in Da Nang city. The development of Da Nang city in the floodplain areas of the lower Vu Gia-Han basin creates a bottleneck in the flow of water into the east and reduces retention capacity. This causes increased flooding in vulnerable communes in the upstream areas of Quang Nam province and in the existing flood-prone areas in Da Nang city. With extreme rainfall, floodwater will back up behind roads and will overtop the filled residential areas within the floodplain.
Rather than focusing primarily on the returns to individual interventions, the approach will be to contrast a base “business as usual” scenario with one that builds resilience and reduces future exposure and losses through strategic design changes in transportation, flood management, and housing systems. Detailed analysis of the costs and benefits of the pathways for these three sectors in the new development area in the southern part of Da Nang city show significant differences in economic returns. However, in all cases, the results show that investment in resilient pathways is socially desirable. This report will represent a critical addition to debates over the justification for resilience investment.